Japan's Abe to disappoint Obama, not only on TPP

However, regarding the Japanese leader's historical revisionism, a group of US World War II soldiers and their relatives have said Abe should only be invited to Congress for a speech if he admits Japan's historical responsibility for its wartime conduct, according to Japan's Kyodo News.

The well-known rightist leader set up an expert panel to provide advices to shape his statement for the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, and the majority of the 16-member panel argued that the word of "aggression" should not be used in the statement as there is no world-recognized definition of "aggression."

Rightist and historical revisionism politics walked by Abe increasingly prompted concerns from its neighboring China and South Korea and prominent world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who have urged Japan to face up to its wartime atrocities.

Continuously frayed ties between Japan and its neighbors also forced Washington on Thursday to emphasize that Japan should approach history issues"in a way that promotes healing and reconciliation." The Tokyo's key ally expressed its disappointment over Abe's Yasukuni visit in 2013.

Calling as the corner stone of Japan's diplomacy, Japan-US defense alliance is also rocked by the thorny issue of the US Futenma airbase relocation plan. Japan's southernmost island prefecture of Okinawa, where the US base is located, ordered Monday to suspend underwater work in the Henoko coastal area in Nago city in the prefecture for the base's replacement.

Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga warned that if the Okinawa Defense Bureau does not follow the order, the Okinawa government would revoke in a week its permit granted to the bureau for rock drilling at the site. But the Japanese central government neglected the prefecture's demand.

The Okinawa Times editorial chief said recently that the Okinawa government and the central government are facing overall confrontation and situation has never had in local governments in postwar era, adding the central government's tough means is triggering more concerns.

The relocation plan of the US airbase has for long troubled the Japan-US alliance and relations between the prefecture and the Japanese central government. Anti-US base sentiment is deep in Okinawa that holds a bulk of US bases in Japan. The issue will also weigh on Abe's US journey.